feminist tv
tiger stripe
Screenplay/Director: Amanda Nell Yu
Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Fadango at Home, Google Play Movies
A coming-of-age horror film in the vein of cult classics like Ginger Snaps and Jennifer’s Body, Tiger Stripes is set in a Malaysian girls’ school where best friends Zafan (Zafreen Zairizal), Farah (Dina Ezral), and Mariam (Pica) live. wake up. ) lived a relatively carefree life until 12-year-old Zaphan became the first of her classmates to get her period. Zafan, who already has a mob-like personality, faces harassment and teasing from Farah. Farah exhibits a jealous and spiteful personality that even the kind and quiet Mariam cannot offset.
However, a little blood and acne are the least of Zafan’s problems. Due to her rebellious nature and mysterious presence in the surrounding jungle, her body begins to change in more monstrous ways. Then, other girls and some teachers are attacked by a mysterious delirium, and the school’s strict constraints are shattered. When a self-aggrandizement guru is called to exorcise the demons that are affecting the girls, Zaphan gets a chance to stand up to them. Should she return to the constraints of her childhood or embrace the freedom to define femininity?
Tiger Stripes was Malaysia’s Oscar pick, and it’s easy to see why. Amanda Nell You’s feature film debut is deft, well-balanced, and doesn’t shy away from being straight-up horror, with impressive performances from a young cast and a familiar yet creepy storyline. Yet even the most disturbing moments are laced with depth and empathy.
girls 5 eva
Created by: Meredith Sardino
Netflix, Peacock
It might be a bit of a cheat to include Girls5eva in this column, as this uproariously funny comedy aired its first two seasons on Peacock from 2020 to 2022. Still, this series is good enough to warrant another nod for the third (hopefully not the final) installment. !) season after a move to Netflix and a nearly two-year hiatus. The show follows the travails of four members of a former 90s girl group as they try to reunite the band 20 years after their famous stars have fallen from the pop music world. I am drawing.
Season 3 brings together pragmatic Dawn (Sara Bareilles), diva Wicki (Renee Elise Goldsberry), animal and woman lover Gloria (Paula Pell), and wayward Summer (Busy Philipps). This is a miscellaneous adventure story about joining Girls5eva on tour. This includes upbeat pop songs like “Tap Into Your (Fort) Worth,” “Sweet’N,” and more. Low Daddy” and “The Medium Time.”
While previous comedies have often been outrageously silly and consistently hilarious, Girls5eva uses the wisdom of experience to explore the nitty-gritty details of what it’s like to be a woman in your 40s trying to recapture the passion of your youth. I’m poking. As I learn more, irony and hope intertwine. To open up a new path.
Best Fiction Film Award
sissy and me
Directed by Frauk Finsterwalder
Apple TV+, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
Fans of idiosyncratic (non-)historical fantasy like Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favorite and Apple TV’s Dickinson will love Sissi, a reimagining of the last years of the enigmatic Austrian Empress Elisabeth (affectionately known as Sissi). You’ll love ‘And Me’. She was married to Emperor Franz Joseph I until her assassination in 1898. The director deliberately avoids historical accuracy, including a wonderful modern soundtrack. It’s a charming dark comedy meant to challenge the popular myths surrounding Sissi, which have been told in many other films and shows over the past century.
Beautifully shot and superbly acted, the film is told through the eyes of Countess Irma (Sandra Hüller), hired as a lady-in-waiting to the capricious Sissi (Suzanne Wolff). Attractive and bubbly, but with a flagrant disregard for her duties at court and an obsession with her age and weight, Sissi meets Irma while hiding from the world in an all-female commune on the island of Corfu. They meet for the first time, and Irma ends up traveling with him to Algiers. From Budapest to England and back to Vienna, the fates of the two women become inextricably intertwined.
quiz lady
Screenplay: Jen D’Angelo, Director: Jessica Yu
Hulu, Disney+, Tubi
If you’re looking for a buddy comedy that balances charming, smart characters with unintentionally fun silliness, look no further than Quiz Lady. The stars alone are a great combination. Awkwafina plays Anne, a cautious 30-something who keeps to herself, lives with her beloved old dog, and has a lifelong obsession with TV game shows. Sandra Oh plays Jenny, Anne’s free-spirited older sister. After her mother sneaks out of town to escape gambling debts, Anne’s world is thrown into turmoil by the unwelcome arrival of Jenny.
An avid Can’t Stop the Quiz fan, she sits in front of the TV every night and answers each question perfectly before the show’s contestants do. Thinking she is helping her sister come out of her shell, Jenny videotapes Anne’s nightly rituals. And it spreads quickly. Suddenly, Anne becomes a “quiz lady” and everyone wants a piece of her, from her previously despised co-workers to the gang who kidnap her dog to get leverage to recoup her mother’s debts. When the chance to compete on the quiz show that has captivated Anne since childhood arises, Jenny convinces her sister that this is her best chance to save her dog (and change her life).
Amidst one-liners and sisterly shenanigans, Quiz Lady offers some unexpectedly poignant observations about how childhood experiences shape us as adults. Throughout, Oh and Awkwafina shine in this sweet and fun comedy about the challenges and rewards of sisterhood.
scrapper
Screenplay/Director: Charlotte Regan
Apple TV+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Youtube TV, Youtube, Paramount+, Roku Channel, Sling, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies, fuboTV
The documentary Going to Mars, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, is about poet Nikki Giovanni’s meditations on space travel as a metaphor for slavery: the seemingly endless ocean. The title comes from the deep blue of the sky and the darkness of space. ;An unforgettable experience that takes you into the unforgiving unknown, with no return. But Giovanni’s fables are laced with peace and strength, and a sense of hope for the future that is evocatively reflected in this documentary about her life and work.
Going to Blends the usual archival footage, interviews, and recordings about Giovanni’s home and professional life with meditative dream-like sequences that show her ideas, accomplishments, and poetic reflections. Mars’ daily life, politics, activism, SM, and the arts can deeply shape and sustain a creative life.
Persian version
Screenplay/Director: Mariam Keshavars
Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies,
Written by writer-director-producer Mariam Keshavars, who won the 2023 Best Original Screenplay Award and the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival, Persian Version is inspired by Keshavars’ real life and explores the relationship between mother and daughter, and family. This is a lively drama about the immigrant experience and the heritage of the United States.
Leila (Leila Mohammadi), a young Iranian-American film director with eight siblings, a forever-broken mother, and a father in need of a heart transplant, has a one-night stand with a man shortly after divorcing his wife. , realizes she is pregnant. This surprising event leads Leila and her family to a series of reflections on their life together, especially the long-held secrets about why her mother immigrated from Iran in the 1960s.
The Persian version rejects a facile, familiar narrative, conveying much of the action through the eyes of a younger version of Leila’s mother, who wrests control of the story from the filmmaker’s daughter, thereby creating an environment in which time, memory, and agency are conveyed. I’m toying with sex.
american style
Directed by Iman Zawahri
Apple TV+, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
A fun and spirited guilty pleasure romantic comedy, Americanism reimagines the genre’s beloved conventions through a Pakistani-American lens. Sisters Mariam (Sarena Qureshi) and Sam (Aiza Fatima) are close and both live at home with their mother. Sam, 30, is a career-minded public relations executive, and Mariam is a fourth-year college student on track to realize her dream of attending Harvard Medical School. Their cousin Ameera (Shehnaz Treasury) enters the scene. He came from Pakistan on an extended visit with the singular purpose of finding a nice Pakistani-American doctor to marry.
Antics ensue. Amela finds herself increasingly drawn to Gabriel (played by comedian Godfrey), a black shopkeeper, even though he is completely unqualified as a husband. Sam struggles with his moral compass while seeking a promotion at work by increasing the social media presence of a conservative politician. Mariam then meets another prep student who seems like a perfect match. In the end, all three and the Khan family patriarch learn that, as the tagline proclaims, dreams may be better off only if they are “likely to become reality.”
sick girl
Screenplay/Director: Jennifer Crumb
Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
As teenagers, Wren (Nina Dobrev), CeCe (Stephanie Koenig), Laurel (Shelly Cora), and Jill (Haley Magnus) are inseparable and always paint the town red. Almost 15 years later, Wren is still the only selfish party girl, frequently getting kicked out of bars and collapsing on CeCe’s couch. Her friends, although still close, seem to have drifted further away. Cece and Jill have children and partners. Laurel is training for a marathon.
Wren, who only cares about herself, becomes worried that her friend is lying and leaving her behind, but an argument escalates and she utters an unexpected lie. “She has cancer.” Suddenly, the wren’s friends return to her side and she seems to have gotten everything she wanted. However, lies have a way of getting out of hand. When Wren meets Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith) at a cancer support group, he quickly becomes suspicious of her antics. The result is an upside-down buddy comedy. And it’s not the easy way. Instead, Sick Girl turns a perplexing premise into a surprisingly funny story about the limits of redemption, the slippery contours of reconciliation, and the power of friendship to overcome life’s worst mistakes.